Please never use Kefir or plain yogurt as a substitute of the sour cream.
It is very hard to find a good sour cream in USA (by the way I am Russian) and Kefir or yogurt will ruin everything. That is not about fat, cholesterol or calories, the food that we eat should taste good and in order to enjoy it never try to calculate calories or think about fat.

In the flow chart you have "deglazing" after cooking the onions. This usually requires adding a liquid. The text above does not mention this, but does talk about scraping the fond. Are these equivalent terms/processes?

In the flow chart you have "deglazing" after cooking the onions. This usually requires adding a liquid. The text above does not mention this, but does talk about scraping the fond. Are these equivalent terms/processes?

Yes, deglazing requires liquid. In the case of this recipe, the onions provide the liquid as they cook down. The water they release is more than enough to loosen up the fond on the pan.

My husband tells me that he likes Beef Stroganoff. I went looking for recipes and found several. I read them to him and he told me that the Beef Stroganoff he remembers had some type of cheese (perhaps swiss). I am open for suggestions. Thanks!

Weightwatchers has variations on this recipe (which I can't post here without infringing their copyright). Essentially, the main variation is to stir in creme fraiche once the rest of the ingredients are cooked and removed from the heat. If you want to keep the points down (or cholesterol), you can also do a chicken stroganoff - not as good, but not bad, either.

I always add garlic to this dish when I make it. It especially tastes good if you roast the garlic first, crush it up and add to the onions and mushrooms when you are sauteeing. As far as having a coronary goes, the way I see it, I'm going to die anyway and I'm not going without tasting beef stroganoff, Turtle cheesecake or Chunky Monkey ice cream.

Is there something that can be used to substitute sour cream? I live in Brazil now and have never seen any. if you add a little lime (no lemons here that I've found) to a canned cream would that work?

Robin- I live in Brazil too. You're right- creme de leite with some limão makes a pretty decent substitute for sour cream. Not quite as thick, but it's pretty good . It's what's used in the Brazilian version of stroganoff (which is completely different than anything posted so far). Anyway, FYI, if you want a sour cream substitute for making dips or putting on Mexican food, try creme de leite, cream cheese and limão. It takes a little work to get the balance right, but it's pretty acceptable.

Mmm. I made this tonight. Excellent dish. I thought the dill was a bit too strong, but it turned out I just needed a bit more salt. The salt really brought out the rest of the flavors and balanced things nicely.

I disagree that the sauce is so powerful that there's no need to drench the noodles in it. I think it's less visually appealing to toss the noodles with the sauce, but I think it'll taste better. Some of the noodles just seemed too dry, and honestly, the sauce isn't that strong. It's fairly rich, but it's not at all overpowering.

Oh, and I used chuck tender roast for the beef. I sliced it crossways against the grain pretty thin (thickest was probably a quarter of an inch or a little more, thinnest was nearly transparent, average was somewhere toward the thinner side, but opaque) and beat it with the textured side of the mallet. Turned out tasty and tender.

Stroganoff is not stroganoff without pickled cucumber. Similar stews have been cooked for centuries in russia (and finland) and the pickled cucumber is what makes it stroganoff. The recepie you wrote is called dillmeat in finland and quite common but has nothing to do with stroganoff. It should also stew a lot longer. 1 hour minimum.

Very nice dish, but the recipe doesn't seem original to me. I have searched through many russian cooking sites and the original recipe is as follows (Luke Grant has mentioned it above):

Cut meat as suggested in the recipe.
Cut onions in rings (or half-rings)
If you want to use mushrooms, they should be fried independently (I do not use mushrooms at all)

Take a skillet, melt butter and add oil (1:1). You need quite a lot, because it should cover the onions. Put onions to cover the bottom of the skillet (that's why we needed rings). Put meat onto the onions, so that it doesn't touch the skillet! Do not mix! Add salt, pepper, spices, close the skillet. Allow it to stew on the high flame for 5-7 minutes until the meat is brown and (it will not burn don't worry).

Now you can stir it, add sour creme (1 cup), tomato sauce (1 tablespoon) or ketchup, garlick, mustard (2-3 teespoons) and mushrooms (if you prepared them). Stir well and close again. It should simmer for 15-30 minutes depending on the meat. It is ready when the meat is soft and you almost cannot see the onions.

Experienced a brainfart -- okay, maybe it was due to a few beers and six dogs snaking around me while cooking -- but I forgot the beef broth step. However, when I sauteed the beef, I left two or three small oddly shaped pieces in the pan so that I might get a bit more beef flavor while cooking the onions and mushrooms. These were "throwaway" bits of beef for the sake of the sauce. I hope their flavor helped compensate for my lack of broth. (Sure wondered why that can of broth was just sitting there on my counter -- a smug grin on it's tin face). I tend to favor more spices in recipes than are usually called for -- I think we Americans like our foods too bland -- so I actually bumped up the bit of dill. (Dill + beef = exquisite taste sensation... I'm sure there's a mathematical/scientific formula for that somewhere). Didn't have cognac (cheap date that I am) so I used a bit of cooking sherry. Very nice version of stroganoff that's easy to prepare and is a wonderful comfort food. I will make it properly next time (out of curiousity more than anything now), but I was very pleased with what I had created sans-broth anyway. Bon appetite friends! And for those that misguidedly fixate on cholesteral/sat fats... just remember all the women that skipped dessert after dinner on the Titanic... you only live once, so enjoy life's pleasures.